The IEEE Life Sciences Grand Challenges Conference was successfully held from October 4-5, 2012 in Washington DC.

Conference Overview

The IEEE Life Sciences Grand Challenges Conference, organized by the IEEE Life Sciences Initiative, will provide a public forum for discussions and debates of grand challenges in engineering life sciences and healthcare. Thought leaders from academia, government and industry will be invited for plenary presentations. All participants will have opportunities to participate and interactively engage in panel discussions following plenary presentations. The goal of the Conference is to identify the grand challenges in engineering solutions to life sciences and healthcare involving major diseases and well being, and their translation to clinical applications, as well as the training of the next generation. Visit IEEE Life Sciences portal for further information about IEEE Life Sciences.

Conference Information

Conference Chair

Bin He, Ph.D.
Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Medtronic-Bakken Chair
Director of Institute for Engineering in Medicine
University of Minnesota

Dr. Bin He is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he also serves as Associate Director for Research of Institute for Engineering in Medicine, Director of Center for Neuroengineering, Director of NSF IGERT Training Program in Neuroengineering, and Director of NIH Training Program in Neuroimaging. Dr. He's major research interests include neuroengineering and functional biomedical imaging. He has made significant original contributions to electrophysiological neuroimaging, multimodal functional neuroimaging, brain-computer interface, and cardiac electrophysiological tomography. Dr. He and his colleagues have pioneered the early development of anatomically constrained EEG source imaging and localization by means of the boundary element method, made significant contributions to novel methodologies of imaging spontaneous brain activity, and to the integrated EEG-fMRI neuroimaging methods. His lab has also made significant contributions to noninvasive EEG based brain-computer interface, and demonstrated for the first time the ability for human subjects to control flight of a virtual and real drone using noninvasive brain waves. His work has been featured by ABC News, Washington Post, Scientific American, Economist, and Fox News, among others. Dr. He has published over 180 peer reviewed journal articles and delivered over 250 keynote, plenary and invited talks and seminars in international conferences and institutions worldwide. He served as the President of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2009-2010), International Society for Functional Source Imaging (2007-2008), and International Society for Bioelectromagnetism (2002-2005). He was the Conference Chair of the 31st Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2009) and Chair of Steering Committee of IEEE EMBS Forum on Grand Challenges in Neuroengineering. Dr. He is a Fellow of IEEE, International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, Institute of Physics, and International Society for Functional Source Imaging. He co-chairs IEEE Life Sciences Project Team and has been appointed as the incoming Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (2013-2015).